


but you're the best i've known

by sayonide



Series: 3 rounds and a sound [4]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Light Angst, i just think that she gets hurt too much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:41:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27745390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sayonide/pseuds/sayonide
Summary: Yang Xiao Long, from the eyes of her family.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna & Yang Xiao Long, Ruby Rose & Yang Xiao Long, Weiss Schnee & Yang Xiao Long
Series: 3 rounds and a sound [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2002933
Comments: 4
Kudos: 54





	but you're the best i've known

**Author's Note:**

> self indulgent thing where everyone just loves yang
> 
> also because im love found family

She wanted to leave from the second she'd realized there was a baby coming. One of the advantages to being a part time bird, she supposed. Knowing about pregnancies early. So when she turned to fly off and realized, she scrambled to make a plan. Tai was overjoyed - of fucking course he was - so she'd have to wait it out for his sake. And then, when the baby was born, drop it off at his cabin and leave.

It was a good plan. Nearly foolproof, except for one detail.

She didn't expect to care about the child. But when it - when _she_ \- came into the world in the cabin Raven was hiding out in, she took one look at the screaming mess in her arms and realized how similar they looked. The baby had Tai's hair colour, but pasted onto a carbon copy of the few baby pictures Raven had seen of herself.

In that second, her resolve nearly died out completely. How was she supposed to just abandon this girl?

And then the baby opened her eyes, and Raven almost dropped her in fear. Bright, shining purple eyes, that same beautiful shade that hers and Qrow's had been, and she realized that she couldn't ruin this girl. Couldn't watch her eyes turn that bright, infested red. Couldn't stick around knowing that it was all her fault, because Raven knew a lot of things, but not how to be a parent. 

So she went through with it all. Took Yang to her father's place and flew off before Tai could open the door and spot her. 

Instead of leaving, though, she stayed. It was too hard not to, to just abandon her daughter completely. 

* * *

She knew it wasn't right, judging someone by their parent's actions, but when she first formally moved in, Summer kept a close eye on Yang. She did her best to treat Yang like she would any other 2 year old, of course, but even Tai noticed the extra layer of caution there. 

You can't treat her differently, he warned her, and Summer felt a little kick of agreement from their unborn child. 

I know, she sighed. 

Despite that, she was still nervous when Ruby was born. It was irrational, but for how much she loved Raven, her former teammate was volatile on a good day, and Yang was already showing signs of the same temper. To her surprise, though, the caution wasn't needed. Yang took one look at her new baby sister, fresh out of the hospital, and immediate dedicated all her time to caring for her, tugging at Summer and Tai's legs when it was even close to one of the agreed upon times for meals, and one day, Summer's fears were pretty much destroyed when a crash came from the hallway.

She dropped her scissors and sprinted inside in fear, only to burst out laughing at the sight of Yang, just over three years old, laying in a pile of clean diapers. Yang struggled to get up from the heap, and let out a yell of frustration, before cutting herself off at a whimper from Ruby.

Immediately, she wiggled out of the diapers and dashed back over to Ruby's crib, where she stood making faces and letting out short bursts of giggles to coax her baby sister into laughing.

There really _was_ nothing to worry about, Summer realized, as she taught Yang how to properly change a diaper.

It made it a little better when she had to leave.

Sure, she felt bad. Guilty. Downright horrible for leaving them, for becoming the second person to leave Yang's life when she was only 5, but she told herself it would be alright. Yang loved her little sister, and Tai would take care of them both. They would be alright.

Deep down, maybe she knew that Tai would shut down the way he did. Being a full-time Huntress was dangerous. She could've died at any moment, and they both knew it. The second she realized that it would end up falling to Yang, barely even 4 at the time, she spent as much time as possible with her. Maybe she hadn't given birth to the little blonde, but hell if she was going to be remembered as anything less than the perfect mom, especially if it could keep their family functioning for another day. 

* * *

Yang always told her stories about their mom. How incredible she was, how incredible her _cookies_ were. She spun tales about Summer Rose the Huntress and Grimm Killer and the protector of the entirety of Remnant, and then always _always_ ended it with a joke about how she always had time to get back home and bake them cookies because out of all of those she was a _supermom_.

Here's the thing, though: Ruby never knew her mom. She had some memories, sure. A smell here or there, a flash of a smile, the pictures that had been left up around the house. But Ruby knew her sister. She knew the sister in her distant memories at 2 and 4, who clung to pant legs and whined and made funny faces at her in the middle of the night, but mostly, she knew the sister who would wake up early and make them toast and juice until she was old enough to start making pancakes when they were 4 and 6 and then 6 and 8. The sister who tucked her into bed when they were 7 and 9 and read her stories until she fell asleep. When they finished the book of fairytales and she sat at the edge of Ruby's bed every night telling her stories of their mother. 

Ruby didn't know her mom as well as she knew Yang. And what she knew of Yang was her _hero_. So even at 8, she wondered why it was always so hard to make Yang talk about their mom in any way that didn't involve mentioning how much better of a job she would've done, and how much happier they could've been, because Ruby was as happy as she needed to be. Who needed Summer Rose the dragon slayer, when she had the dragon herself on her side?

So when they were 14 and 16 and she found out Yang was going to Beacon, she was overjoyed. It had been years since she'd last needed her big sister to protect her, and now that she was old enough to realize just how much Yang had done for them, she couldn't wait for her to be able to go out and live her own life.

But Yang wasn't happy, and she couldn't understand why. After all, getting into Beacon was the chance of a lifetime. 

Maybe she'd ask someday. 

* * *

Taiyang was not stupid. You don't go through the second most selective Huntsman Academy and come out of it an idiot. And he knew he'd left his children alone for far longer than he should've.

In the beginning, it was easy to pretend that nothing existed, and nothing mattered. Summer was gone, and sure, the girls were still there, but they had Qrow, right?

It didn't hit him that they'd been left with nothing until the banging on his door started, and Qrow's voice came through. Quiet at first, but after the third week of silence and water and old rations and more sleep than he'd ever had, a bird came flying full speed at his room, smashed his window, and Qrow landed on the floor, concerned and more than a little bit pissed.

"You've got kids," he snarled. "Kids who lost their mom, too. So you best get the hell out of this room and at least let them know you're alive."

And it takes time. It's hard. They look like they're coping and happy every time he leaves his room, and it starts feeling like they don't need him there, because maybe they don't. 

He doesn't consider the role he had forced Yang into. He can't, really. Every day, it hurt to get up and do anything, and without any reason to need to do so he wondered how the hell the girls were functioning so well.

It took him years to realize that they hadn't been. By then, it was already too late.

He'd come out of his room and started doing some of the work around the house early enough that Ruby had taken to his presence quickly, but it was hard to imagine Yang coming around anytime soon. It was fine, though. He didn't expect her to.

It didn't mean that it hadn't hurt, every time he'd try and take care of them like he should've and Yang brushed him off to do things her own way. No matter what, he just kept screwing things up, and he couldn't blame anyone else. He had been grieving. So were they. 

But every time he got up the nerve to properly apologize for being distant for all those years, there was some excuse that came up. It would stress her out during exams, Ruby was having a hard time and couldn't see an argument spark out now, whatever he could cling onto at the time, until August hit, and Yang was packing for Beacon. 

No more time to wait. He knocked on her bedroom door, and when she opened it, took and breath and hoped to the Gods that he didn't mess this up more.

-

When Ruby got in as well, and the two of them headed off in the airship, he told himself that it was for the best. Yang was more than capable, and she'd proven so time and time again. With her around, they'd be okay.

* * *

It wasn't like it took a long time to get a someone's word, but it usually wasn't so immediate and loud. Just like Yang herself, she supposed. Immediate and loud. 

The first time they met, she was annoyed at the noise coming from right in front of her, very quickly getting louder. It was her first day at Beacon, after all, and she momentarily wondered if any amount of freedom was worth this. Whatever was going to come out of that though, though, was quickly cut off when she looked up and saw the girl who'd managed to immediately piss off the Schnee, being dragged behind a bright curtain of gold. When the mass of gold _waved_ at her, her brain nearly fell over herself.

 _Strength_. Where had she heard that type of word before? It was overpowering, and so overwhelmingly obvious, and it terrified her. Two months out of the Fang. She wasn't ready. 

The thing was, Yang's word didn't change. Never even budged from its placed, cemented into her brain. And nothing she could note ever made it happen. If anything, every interaction they had just further dug in how right and just how fitting it was. 

Against her will, the two of them grew closer, and she couldn't help but trust Yang. No matter how much she fought against it, she found herself slowly seeking out comfort from her partner, sprawling out across the top bunk in search of conversation, and enjoying herself how she never got to while stuck in the White Fang.

Spending that much time with Yang had another effect, though. She started noticing things. Noticing how underneath the _bright party girl_ was a running current of _protection_ that was seen almost always with Ruby and commonly with their team, but even deeper under that was the willingness to sacrifice. 

Yang would _die_ for them, she realized. It wasn't because she was stupid, or because she was just the blind, self-sacrificial type. 

It was because she didn't know how else to live. 

She considered confronting her about it. It wasn't healthy; her time in the White Fang made sure that she knew that. But how? As far as Yang was concerned, she apparently just thought of it as regular older sibling protectiveness. And who was Blake to tell her what love was supposed to look like?

* * *

Weiss knew what it was like to have an older sister. It was having an ally for the darker days, knowing how to act because she'd learn everything, go through all the motions first. It was having a tutor who knew from experience how to handle their father. It was...

To be quite honest, Weiss maybe didn't really know what it was like to have a big sister. Not the way that she saw every day in her new room. 

The first time Yang finished the stealth stage in training, she'd walked off and over to where the three of them were waiting, where Ruby immediately ran to tackle her into a hug. She'd cheered so long and loud and Weiss almost considered hitting her over the head, but it seemed to cruel, even with her reputation still standing. 

She only really thought about it after they had cleaned up and were back in their room. How could Ruby just _do_ that? More importantly, how did Yang just let her? 

Over time, though, the separation between them became more and more obvious. She brushed it off as just the class separation at first but -- they always looked so happy, being how they were. 

_Happiness is not a priority_ , she thought. 

_Fuck you,_ something that sounded very similar to Yang says back, and she told herself that she's annoyed at the blonde's voice making its way into her subconsciousness. 

But Winter stopped contacting her. She hadn't expected much, but Winter slowed down the contact, slowly had less and less time for her, and while they hadn't exactly been as close as Yang and Ruby seemed to be, they weren't distant. 

Her problem comes when she makes it too obvious. They've got a spare block after lunch, and Weiss, as always, is the first one done and back in their room. That time, though, she spent just a little too long allowing herself to sit on her bed and wait for a message. Yang burst into the room, her mouth half open like she was about to say something, but then froze and slowly shut the door behind her. 

"You okay?" She asked, and Weiss jumped from her seat and tossed her scroll to the bed.

" _Yes_ , Yang, of course I am. What else would I be?" She sniped, but her heart was pounding from the suddenness, and Yang thumped down next to her with a look that felt far too much like she was looking right into her and seeing exactly how panicked she had gotten. 

Yang shrugged. "Well, you're staring at your scroll with that sad look that Ruby gets sometimes, and it's kind of my duty as your newly-appointed second older sister to make sure."

Weiss stared at her blankly. Newly-appointed... What?

A moment passed.

Yang scratched the back of her head in that familiar habit that she and Ruby both had, and tried again.

"I'm declaring myself team sister. Consider all of you looked after."

Weiss stared at her for another moment, before setting herself back on the bed.

"Can you even look after yourself?"

Yang looked almost offended at that. "What do you mean? I've been taking care of me and Ruby for years, c'mon, where's the faith?"

"I know," she said, "But what about taking care of yourself separate from someone else?"

When another long pause came out of that, she felt her entire body heat up. "N-Never mind that, forget that I said anything. I'm sure you're an exceptional sister, blood-related or otherwise."

Yang nodded, slowly. "Don't worry about it. You didn't say anything wrong," she said, reassuring as always. "Just gave me something to think about, I guess."

And Weiss had never been good at emotions. She would probably never get to the level of comfort that Ruby and Yang had with other people. But she liked to think that she was at least better than she had been at the beginning of their first year, so before she could escape to the training rooms or a washroom, she forced herself to stay on her bed and leaned over to give Yang a hug. 

Completely ignoring the _warm warm warm family warm good_ that started racing through her head, she gripped the back of Yang's shirt. 

"You're a good sister," she muttered. "One of the best people I've ever met."

Yang laughed and patted her back. "Don't hurt yourself with those compliments, Weiss Cream," but pulled her in tighter when Weiss huffed to move back. "I love you too, though. And I mean it. Maybe I have a lifetime of issues to work through, but you three are my baby siblings. All three of you."

Weiss sighed and let herself be enveloped by heat for a while. When she was let go, it was with a ruffle of her hair and a final smile, and on her way to the gym, she thought, yeah. Yang was a good sister. It wasn't to say that Winter wasn't, just that if someone were to claim a spot as a second sister... She was glad it was Yang.

**Author's Note:**

> anything you did today is enough. you're allowed to set your own boundaries and speak up when you're uncomfortable. 
> 
> just a rambling one today, i felt bad about not posting


End file.
